Cities

Slum upgrading on the racially divided edges of Johannesburg

Johannesburg, 15 October 2015 — Johannesburg’s economic and spatial fragmentation – largely along racial lines – has given rise to informal settlements along apartheid-era buffer zones and at the outskirts of the city, perpetuating a landscape shaped by deep inequalities. This month we spoke to Dr. Costanza La Mantia, who recently organised an International Trans-disciplinary Workshop held at the University of the Witwatersrand in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano on patterns of peripheral poverty, using Kya Sands informal settlement on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg as a case study. The workshop aimed at collaboratively developing an incremental and integrative upgrading strategy, using design as an exploratory tool to foster negotiations and collaborations. See more.

Slum upgrading on the racially divided edges of Johannesburg

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Johannesburg’s economic and spatial fragmentation – largely along racial lines – has given rise to informal settlements along apartheid-era buffer zones and at the outskirts of the city, perpetuating a landscape shaped by deep inequalities. This month we spoke to Dr. Costanza La Mantia, an architect, planner, academic and co-founder/director of award winning firm Bantu Design and Research, who recently organized an International Trans-disciplinary Workshop held at the University of the Witwatersrand in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano on patterns of peripheral poverty, using Kya Sands informal settlement on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg as a case study.

What concerns was this workshop organized to address?

While characterized by the absence of basic services and serious environmental risks, informal settlement communities are also highly adaptive and resilient, exhibiting alternative, bottom-up practices. However, institutions still address informal settlement upgrading in a compartmentalized way, framing the response as the provision of basic services and housing – rarely in situ – failing to address the complex economic, socio-spatial, and ecological challenges that are at the root of the phenomena and its complexity.

The workshop aimed at collaboratively developing an incremental and integrative upgrading strategy for the Kya Sands settlement, which could generate synergies between alternative economies, restorative ecologies, social empowerment and spatial transformations, using design as an exploratory tool to foster negotiations and collaborations.

How does current practice match up?

The well-known RDP mechanism continues to pervade the mindset of municipality officials, notwithstanding the progressive shift of focus in the national programmes requiring integrative and participatory approaches. The various city departments often operate in an uncoordinated manner, either due to overlapping – if not conflicting – mandates, or due to a general lack of communication. The result is that when institutions intervene, projects often proceed outside a logical sequence and lack synergistic integration, representing both a waste of economic resources as well as exacerbating the institutional capacity to respond effectively.

A deep change of attitude towards more flexible, integrated, participatory and context-specific approaches is made unfeasible both by the current fragmentation of the institutional landscape, and by the lack of a strong design focus. Rather, interventions are shaped by institutions around numeric targets rather than around principles such as spatial quality, context specific responses and integrated and collaborative approaches. For sustainable change, a different method is needed, and our workshop wanted to push the city to experiment in these areas.

What did you learn?

Local and foreign students and experts worked in the field for two weeks. Beyond the spatial fragmentation, in the process we discovered a deep fragmentation of interests as well – both within the community and more generally among the different stakeholders.

What was achieved on the ground?

One of major achievements of the workshop on the ground was the construction of an honest dialogue among the different stakeholders. This process was started and facilitated through the workshop, building a solid basis for a long-term collaborative engagement. But we would like the city to step in more proactively in this regard.

What was the experience of collaborating with the city and what, if anything, has it committed itself to?

By engaging the city officials in experimentation with integrated approaches, we realized that a changing mindset on integrated participatory upgrading was happening among the participants, unveiling the importance of bringing different interests together and negotiating around common aspirations. But while there is a verbal commitment from the city’s side, we will have to see if and how the city will react to the proposed strategies so that this kind of experimentation can become real praxis.

City BRT, neighbourhood BRT, and the "Corridors of Freedom": Image and reality in Johannesburg

Johannesburg, 15 October 2015 — Touted as the "Corridors of Freedom" by the City of Johannesburg, the city’s BRT system has the potential to improve mobility and accessibility and to even restructure the ‘apartheid city’. But one recent study by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand’s urban resilience research programme and the South African Cities Network revealed many contradictions at the neighbourhood level. Private investment, densification and land development activity therefore must be guided, local impact must be of equal importance to city scale planning, and legal, financial, and spatial instruments need to be aligned. See more.

City BRT, neighbourhood BRT, and the "Corridors of Freedom": Image and reality in Johannesburg

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Touted as the "Corridors of Freedom" by the City of Johannesburg, the city's BRT systemhas the potential to improve mobility and accessibility and, with its associated Transit Orientated Development (TOD) concept of mixed-use and mixed-income development around BRT stations and BRT corridors, to even restructure the ‘apartheid city’. But several articles on the URB.im platform have already cautioned for the need to ensure that the BRT process, along with its associated pedestrian and cyclist (NMT) infrastructure, ensures appropriate redevelopment at the local level. For poorer neighbourhoods especially, the tremendous cost of the system means that it must necessarily have a transformative impact above simply providing better mobility efficiency and an image of progress vis-a-vie the taxi industry that it displaces.

Using the Diepkloof BRT Station as a case study, one recent study by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand’s urban resilience research programme and the South African Cities Network attempted to "assess the [BRT] impact … at a neighbourhood level." Diepkloof was originally established in 1959 south of Johannesburg to accommodate black people removed from more centrally located areas.

The study revealed several alarming trends. While it confirmed that many public transport users had shifted to the BRT, mostly for reasons of time-saving vis-a-vie using taxis, this was largely where its successes ended. Several contradictions revealed the BRT process to be much more of a mixed bag of results. Two years since the BRT system was introduced in 2009, construction began on Diepkloof’s first shopping centre ("Diepkloof Square") located 750 meters away from the BRT station. Although in itself "business as usual" given South Africa’s high number of malls and shopping centres, its prioritisation of private vehicles over pedestrians, bulk mono-functionality over mixed-use and mixed-income, and insular typology over generating quality and equitable urban environments, all contradict stated BRT/TOD goals. The shopping centre, moreover, occupied the site of the former Mandelaville informal settlement, removed to a more peripheral area by the City of Johannesburg in 2002 in lieu of the development (although many now live in backyard units around Diepkloof after refusing to leave).

Such major private investment alongside but unaligned with major public investment was also linked to many other contradictory conditions. The study noted that "opportunities to access retail activities are not available or are inconvenient" and almost all BRT users interviewed were travelling toward Johannesburg rather than Soweto, indicating that employment opportunities still lie elsewhere. Moreover, where public and private investment both were unaligned with local realities they also had other ramifications. The BRT system had "severely affected the local taxi business in Diepkloof" and traders now occupied a taxi rank largely abandoned by taxis as a market, to the south of the shopping complex. However, "the mall had reduced the level of trading activity at the market" also and "many stalls had closed," and generally "trading activity seems to have decreased and traders have had to change their product offerings."

While the BRT appears to be successful in terms of efficiency, the many contradictions reveal that its imagined environments—essential to the long-term viability of the system—need to be actively promoted and protected. Private investment, densification and land development activity must be guided, local impact must be of equal importance to city scale planning (and existing communities must be included, not displaced), and critically, legal, financial, and spatial instruments need to be aligned. Alternatively, the ‘apartheid city’ will remain the rule rather than the exception, and the BRT will have been an overly extravagant bus service and little more. Close.

Planning between the local and the global in Johannesburg's Spatial Development Framework

Johannesburg, 23 September 2015 — This article is the second in a series on the shaping of the City of Johannesburg's current Spatial Development Framework (Joburg SDF). This month we spoke to Rogier van den Berg of The Urban Planning and Design LAB, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) – international planning consultants for the Joburg SDF – to discuss the relationship between local efforts and global goals. See more.

What does your unit do and what does it seek to bring to the Joburg SDF?

Launched in 2014, UN-Habitat's Urban Planning and Design LAB proposes and implements urban planning projects from neighborhood to city-wide scale worldwide. It brings best practices from all over the world while supporting local, regional and national authorities to implement policies, plans and designs through participatory planning processes, that are not an outcome but the start of a multi-stakeholder discussion.

What are the yardsticks that you measure a city against?

For sustainable urban planning, we measure the city against three holistic concepts: compact, integrated and connected. For this we have a set of five interlinked principles: (1) promoting adequate space for streets and an efficient street network (for vehicles, public transport, pedestrians and cyclists); (2) well-designed density as the foundation of a sustainable neighborhood; (3) mixed land-use to promote the local economy and encourage pedestrian and cyclist traffic; (4) connectivity in the street section, for walking, use of multiple modes of transport, and to encourage economic usage of building plinths; and (5) social mix that promotes social cohesion and equitable urban opportunities.

What can be measured to global standards and what needs more nuanced approaches?

Sustainable Urban Development is about principles, not standards. But one might say that, for example, a street pattern that occupies less than 10 percent of the land discourages walking and has poor economic potential.

The differences can lie in building typologies, in the way people use streets, how economy is part of society and how it occupies city spaces, and how topography and climate also dictates the need for shadow, water retention and street patterns. But some basics should still be in place. Some people, like in Joburg, still need to travel long distances and spend more than half of their salaries on transport.

If legal, financial and spatial instruments also are not linked and aligned, implementation will simply fail. This set of preconditions is also unique in any society.

Is Johannesburg unique?

Any city in the world, even every street, is unique. In Joburg many aspects of the city are amplified: high levels of segregation, extreme fragmentation, inequality, high levels of poverty and an urban economy based on informality. At the same time Joburg is a city on the global map, with a past that showed the world how to pave the way to freedom, although twenty years after Apartheid the city still is highly segregated.

How effectively is Johannesburg tackling inequality?

The City is addressing inequality, but this should surpass short-term political thinking. We are working on setting a long-term vision for the Joburg SDF, as well as transformative concrete urban projects. A city like Medellin in Colombia showed that great achievements are possible in overcoming excessive crime rates and inequality by bringing public authorities together with academia and the private sector with a common long-term goal.

Local administrations should facilitate a process in which many stakeholders take part. The SDF developed in a series of "charrettes" that included civic society, academia, the private sector, and a range of public authorities and departments. Overcoming the urban divide is probably also a responsibility of the nation state, not only the City. Close.

Answering xenophobia: The rise of a Johannesburg soccer team

Johannesburg, 27 August 2015 — In a context where poor South Africans struggle to find work and service delivery promises are often perceived as empty, it is often African foreigners with whom they live side by side who become the targets for anger and frustration. In May 2008 and April 2015, these frustrations exploded into countrywide xenophobic attacks. In 2008 a Johannesburg-based NPO, the Sultan Bahu Centre, went into areas where attacks took place to try to use soccer as a means around which to build bridges and to help to integrate foreign nationals back into society. A soccer team known as "Sultan Bahu FC" was formed, whose ethos was matched only by its stunning success. See more.

Answering xenophobia: The rise of a Johannesburg soccer team

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Immigration is a critical, current international issue, particularly in the Global North. But places like South Africa, with a population of about 50 million, is also home to an estimated five million immigrants.

In a context where poor South Africans struggle to find work and service delivery promises are often perceived as empty, it is often African foreigners with whom they live side by side who become the targets for anger and frustration. According to the African Centre for Migration and Society, xenophobic-related instances occur on a weekly basis and xenophobic attitudes have deeply penetrated South African society.

In May 2008, these frustrations exploded into countrywide xenophobic attacks, wherein over 60 people were killed and many thousands of foreign Africans were displaced. Public outcry after another explosion of xenophobic attacks in April 2015 finally forced a belated governmental acknowledgement, after years of denial. But this did not result in "soft" local initiatives to build social cohesion, but in blunt measures which exacerbated tensions (the temporary refugee camps of 2008 were described as "inhumane" by the South African Human Rights Commission, and the 2015 attacks were followed by police and army raids on xenophobic "hot spots" that appeared themselves to target foreign nationals).

One moving example of an altogether different approach was pursued as part of the social outreach projects of a Johannesburg-based NPO, the Sultan Bahu Centre (SBC). After the 2008 attacks, and with the approaching 2010 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the country, the organisation went into areas where attacks took place to try to use soccer as a means around which to build friendships and to help to integrate foreign nationals back into society. A soccer team known as "Sultan Bahu FC" was formed, made up of immigrants and refugees from all across Africa (Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana and Burundi).

This spectrum of African countries, however, was also the very reason the pioneering club was refused registration into a local league by the South African Football Association (SAFA) (only South Africans can register). Following a strongly-worded letter by the club to SAFA expressing its "deep regret at SAFA's lack of vision in deepening democracy and building bridges of understanding between diverse communities through the beautiful game of soccer," SAFA relented. Sultan Bahu FC is now the only team in the league to field a full squad of immigrants and refugees.

The club's Mozambican coach also emphasises the role of sport in taking players away from drugs. Religious affiliations too, rather than a divisive element, is used to foster a spirit of hope and to deepen bonds of love and friendship. Like SBC's pluralism in other social initiatives, alternate matches thus begin with a Christian or a Muslim prayer, to "create unity, so that nobody feels excluded," as the club's South African manager explains.

The club's admirable ethos, it appears, has been matched only by its stunning success. The club has been promoted five times in six years, from Fourth Division league champions at its first attempt in 2009 to Super League champions in 2014 and, while still struggling financially (the team often trains by car headlights at night), in late 2015 the club will enter the SAFA Promotion League.

Distinct from detached political rhetoric, Sultan Bahu FC is a humane and socially responsive qualitative success from the ground up, echoed on the field. In cities polarised and unequal, and communities angry and frustrated, even amidst crisis, it is a space of the radical everyday. It is a tangible and hopeful reminder of what is always still possible. Close.

Johannesburg, 27 July 2015 — Political transformation in South Africa also meant spatial transformation, significantly predicated on public transport. With the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Programme and associated e-tolling, and municipal Bus Rapid Transit infrastructure underway in Johannesburg and the Gauteng Province, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory has suggested that "the region appears to be in a new 'golden era' of transit infrastructure design and investment." See more.

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Political transformation in South Africa also meant spatial transformation. Much improvement in city spatial planning has been made over the last two decades. Moving away from more prescriptive and comprehensive forms of planning, both internationally and in South Africa, broad spatial frameworks have now become a standard form of planning in South Africa, which typically rely on spatial tools such as nodes and corridors. This trajectory has moved from planning as control to planning as a loose facilitation, but it is not without its criticisms. It has been described as too utopian, contradicted by national policy, and disconnected to property and housing markets and to local-level decision-making, land use management, and infrastructure planning. It is also oriented toward formal rather than informal sector employment. Nonetheless, the approach has provided indicative guidance for spatial development, particularly in restructuring space in the post-apartheid city.

Spatial transformation has also been significantly predicated on public transport. With the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Programme and associated e-tolling, and municipal Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure underway in Johannesburg and the Gauteng Province, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) has suggested that "the region appears to be in a new 'golden era' of transit infrastructure design and investment."

Coming perhaps at a tail end of the focus on corridor development in planning, and potentially also sharing many of its criticisms, the so-named "Corridors of Freedom" has intended to employ Johannesburg's flagship BRT initiative to create Transit Orientated Development along key corridors. One of the key potential benefits of the BRT is its ability to respond to the qualitative dimensions lacking in more broad, abstract spatial frameworks, such as supporting social dynamics, need and economic opportunities at neighbourhood level, and facilitating new and less segregated forms of identity and community. However, this potential must still be realised and ensured, for the corridor approach can lead to gentrification and transport stations can become the focus of commercial development, such as the case in Bangkok. In Johannesburg, the largely private sector-led and profit-driven Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, the ambitious sister initiative of the BRT, already shows similar trends to the Bangkok case and is almost completely disconnected from supporting opportunities at a local scale.

A recent country-wide annual telephone survey of 1,000 South Africans to gauge community confidence in transport indicated that transport was the third highest overall priority in South African society today (after education and health). Despite the fact that public transport policy has been aligned with public transport needs for almost two decades, this ranking indicates that transport is still regarded as critical and is not perceived as meeting user requirements. This points to a problem of policy implementation, and the required political commitment for this to take effect. Moreover, the responses may also be indicative of the underlying qualitative disconnect from diverse lived realities typically lacking in corridor frameworks and the imbalances of a fragmented and unequal city form generally.

There is a lot riding on Johannesburg's BRT, both politically and in terms of providing meaningful urban responses to all of these oversights. Johannesburg will probably also lead the way in which it will be taken up across the rest of the country. Participation, imagination, and experimentation with new spaces and typologies are therefore crucial. They should help to bridge the city scale focus with the local scale, as well as emphasise planning for the social and economic dimensions of the spatial alongside the provision of transport infrastructure. Close.

Photos: (1) A Gautrain station, (2) a BRT station, (3) an inner city market and park. (Pictures by author).

Who is planning for? Planning with urbanisation and informality in Johannesburg's Spatial Development Framework

Johannesburg, 22 June 2015 — Johannesburg remains the focal point for economic opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa and is the largest city in South Africa. Facing global challenges such as increasing urbanisation and economic inequality, the City's current Spatial Development Framework is being prepared to guide public and private investment toward not only accommodating a growing population and an increase in informality, but using these to drive growth and urban sustainability. See more.

Who is planning for? Planning with urbanisation and informality in Johannesburg's Spatial Development Framework

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Johannesburg remains the focal point for economic opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa and is the largest city in South Africa. Facing global challenges such as increasing urbanisation and economic inequality, the City's Spatial Development Framework (SDF) was prepared and annually revised since 2002 to guide public and private investment toward more equitable spatial and economic growth (fig. 1 and 2). As a key higher order spatial vision, it must translate higher level policy paradigms, such as "the pro-active absorption of the poor (...) into fully-fledged urban citizens" and "settlement restructuring (...) to bringing jobs closer to people" into a coherent spatial strategy. We spoke to Paul Hanger of IYER Urban Design Studio, planning consultants for the SDF with The Urban Planning and Design Lab of UN-Habitat and Urban Morphology Institute, about the process.

Briefly explain the role of Johannesburg's SDF.

The SDF is part of a broader planning process, and sits within a broader suite or package of plans influenced by, and taking direction from, the Integrated Development Plan of the city (fig. 3). It thus has primary legislative function. At another level, the SDF provides the overriding long term spatial vision for the City, exploring appropriate spatial development challenges and scenarios for a "Future City". The dynamics of the city are constantly changing (or rather our understanding of these dynamics is maturing), and a spatial plan that may have been 'appropriate' a decade ago may now have become an obstacle to sustainable urban growth.

What are the major urban-spatial challenges addressed?

The fundamental challenge currently confronting the city is assimilating a rapidly increasing urban population, of limited resources, into an urban system that is already constrained with its own spatial shortcomings (spatial inequality, fragmentation, urban sprawl, limited diversity and inefficient land use patterns, increasing pressure on the natural environment), in a way that is able to generate opportunity and sustain quality urban living. It is not just a case of accommodating a growing population and an increasing of informality, but using these to drive growth and urban sustainability. The spatial positioning and form of this growth is thus critical.

Is the SDF the most appropriate tool to address these challenges?

The SDF on its own will not transform the city. It requires a concurrent capital investment process to implement key spatial interventions. It also requires a more detailed level of planning to give spatial guidance to more localised development patterns (figs. 4). More importantly, in the local government context it needs political buy in and an effective champion.

How innovative is the SDF in offering sustainable solutions?

Johannesburg can have the most innovative spatial vision and framework possible, yet this becomes superfluous if, for example, higher levels of government continue imposing urban development priorities on the city – the provincial housing 'Megacity' approach or the proposed Gautrain extensions are examples here. The SDF cannot realistically address all of the urban challenges without being part of a broader shift in the way we build cities.

What are the major obstacles in implementation?

There are numerous obstacles ranging from political buy in to an increasing inertia to change in many of the 'privileged' areas of the city. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the lack of a common urban vision for the city in our (fragmented) urban context. The reality is that, as a city community, we need to accept that, fundamentally, our city is not working at the level it has historically been positioned, and we need to rethink what it is doing, and where it is doing it. Close.

Between state and society: the work of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa

Johannesburg, 26 May 2015 — While South Africans all signed up to a new constitutional path in the immediate post-apartheid era, constitutional ideals at times also appear to be flouted both by government and by society. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa is one notable non-profit organisation seeking to bridge such divides. Building on the nation's constitutional framework, it provides dedicated socio-economic rights assistance for individuals, communities, and social movements. See more.

Between state and society: the work of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Although South Africans all signed up to a new constitutional path in the immediate post-apartheid era "based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights," constitutional ideals at times also appear to be flouted both by government and by a society which remains grossly unequal and appears increasingly divided. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) is one notable non-profit organisation seeking to bridge such divides. Building on the nation's constitutional framework, it provides dedicated socio-economic rights assistance for individuals, communities and social movements. We spoke to Kate Tissington, senior research and advocacy officer at SERI, about the organisation's work and challenges.

Explain briefly what SERI does and how it was established.

SERI was established in 2010 to pursue an integrated approach to research, litigation, and advocacy work in order to support groups trying to enforce the socio-economic rights contained in the South African Constitution.

SERI currently works across four strategic, thematic areas: inner city housing; informal settlement upgrading and basic services; participation, protest, and political space; and informal trade and livelihoods. For example, in SERI's inner-city housing work, existing inner-city evictions jurisprudence has shaped and focused the organization's strategy to advocate for and develop a model of affordable rental accommodation.

With respect to SERI's focus areas, how are South Africans faring, as a government, a private sector, or a society?

While the Constitution guarantees socio-economic rights to everyone and there have been many progressive laws and policies developed since 1994, implementation in real terms has been disappointing, especially given South Africa's status as a middle-income country. The provision of adequate housing and basic services is devolved to the provincial and local government level and it here that a crisis of delivery and accountability is being witnessed. The proliferation of so-called "service delivery protests" around the country points to mass dissatisfaction with local governance, especially in underserved communities and poor municipalities. Linked to this is the broader phenomenon of the increased use of policing and the criminal justice system to shut down dissent. These are worrying developments.

There has never been a greater need for new models of interaction between state and society on the scope and content of socio-economic needs and obligations. SERI views its work as being as much about the consolidation of constitutional democracy as about delivering material benefits and public services to poor communities.

What are some of the greatest challenges that SERI engages?

In SERI's inner-city housing and informal trade work in Johannesburg, litigation has gone so far and a different type of engagement and negotiation on the broader strategic and policy issues is required. Unfortunately, the local state does not seem interested in really attempting to engage with SERI and its clients on this. Operations like Clean Sweep and Ke Molao, and the abuse of the criminal justice system to silence dissent, are challenges which highlight the often very anti-poor and antagonistic approaches that dominate with the local state, despite there being progressive policies in place.

What are some of the key disciplines that can engage these challenges?

SERI consists of people who have not only studied law, but also social anthropology, sociology, economics, development studies, history, social work, development planning, and urban studies. These disciplines bring different dimensions to SERI's work, and are all extremely useful when responding to challenges facing clients, conceptualizing research, and positioning advocacy. In terms of housing issues in cities and urban areas, the solutions are complex and require a nuanced, multi-dimensional approach. Close.

Poverty, the corporate sector, and South Africa's energy crisis: a solar-powered light and Internet access for those with little or no access to electricity

Johannesburg, 28 April 2015 — Recently South Africans were shocked to find themselves in the midst of a national energy crisis. With energy firmly in the spotlight, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is slowly emerging in the private sector as one avenue through which to begin responding to these challenges. Net1 Mobile's Sun-e-light is one such CSR initiative, providing solar-powered light and Internet aimed at those with little or no access to electricity. See more.

Poverty, the corporate sector, and South Africa's energy crisis: a solar-powered light and Internet access for those with little or no access to electricity

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Recently South Africans were shocked to find themselves in the midst of a national energy crisis. Policy decisions taken two decades ago that new capacity should be built by the private sector rather than by the Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom), the South African public electricity utility since 1923, ultimately failed as electricity was too cheap and profit margins too small for private power producers to take up. Though policy change and new projects would come years later, two decades without building any new capacity has meant that since 2006 South Africans have experienced official electricity blackouts known as "loadshedding" schedules as the current infrastructure continues to buckle.

With energy firmly in the spotlight, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is slowly emerging in the private sector as one avenue that has begun to respond to these challenges. The concept of CSR, though, is still very much in its infancy in South Africa and remains essentially voluntary. A previous article discussed how the CSR concept was accessed and creatively deployed by the young company Rethaka to make a contribution to social and environmental conditions as well. Others, such as Net1 Mobile Solutions, a Johannesburg-based technology and mobile banking company that is part of the Net1 group, have also begun to direct their own CSR content to engage energy needs more specifically, especially in areas of poverty.

Net1 Mobile's Sun-e-light is a new solar-powered lamp aimed at those with little or no access to electricity. The small, compact product provides light as either a lamp or a torch, charges mobile phones, and also provides access to the Internet as a WiFi hotspot. The lamp takes eight hours to charge and provides a battery life of up to 16 hours, and will also be available for sale to the public for under R300 (US$25). The plan is to roll out 2,000 lamps initially and, depending on demand, follow with more, as well as to move manufacturing from China to South Africa.

For many corporations, such green initiatives often tend to serve corporate offices themselves and not necessarily those in places of greatest need. For this reason, initiatives such as the Sun-e-light should be welcomed, and are also pertinent to the broader society given South Africa's current energy crisis. As the concept of CSR matures, however, it also must develop a greater spatial sensibility as opposed to injections of technological advances only; for in areas of greatest need, innovative technologies that serve shared spaces and uses can have greater collective impact within communities than products directed to individual consumers only.

Building strategic intelligence for 'city-regions': an interview with Guy Trangoš on the Gauteng City-Region Observatory in South Africa

Johannesburg, 25 March 2015 — Extending beyond traditionally more spatially delimited notions of a city, many modern cities now approximate to large, polycentric 'city-regions' with multiple governance structures. Centred round South Africa's Gauteng province, the Gauteng City-Region is a cluster of cities (Johannesburg and Pretoria), towns, and urban nodes that together make up the economic heartland and most densely populated part of the country. In 2008 the Gauteng City-Region Observatory' was established to build "strategic intelligence" to grasp this large, complex, and dynamic space. See more.

Building strategic intelligence for 'city-regions': An interview with Guy Trangoš on the Gauteng City-Region Observatory in South Africa

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

Extending beyond traditionally more spatially delimited notions of a city, many modern cities now approximate to large, polycentric 'city-regions' with multiple governance structures. Centred round South Africa's Gauteng province, the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) is a cluster of cities (Johannesburg and Pretoria), towns, and urban nodes that together make up the economic heartland and most densely populated part of the country. In 2008, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) was established to build "strategic intelligence" to grasp this large, complex, and dynamic space. We interviewed Guy Trangoš, an architect and researcher at the GCRO, about the research organisation's challenges and opportunities.

What need does the GCRO fill and how was it established?

The GCRO came about through a partnership agreement between the Gauteng Provincial Government, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Johannesburg. It grew out of two separate sets of discussions and debates: one about the notion of Gauteng as a city-region, and another about the academic contribution to the work of government. The GCRO was thus one of the first city-region institutions founded, to research and promote mechanisms for a better functioning city-region.

What are its general approach and outputs?

While the majority of our funding comes from provincial and local government, we have an independent academic mandate and our legal identity is as a university research centre. This means that our research has to stand up to the most rigorous academic standards, but also have strong policy relevance. From journal articles, to reports, provocations, maps of the month, and interactive data visualisations, our various output formats reflect this approach.

How is GCRO research utilized?

We disseminate our research widely, and actively work to ensure that our work has meaning. For example, we have set up a City Lab around Green Infrastructure that regularly brings municipal and provincial officials together with researchers and specialists to ensure that research in this field is relevant, and to build capacity within government to better understand and implement green infrastructure projects.

What role does the GCRO play towards research on inequality and poverty?

Every two years the GCRO runs a 'Quality of Life' survey across the entire province. This survey not only collects the indicators but also asks a number of objective and subjective questions regarding attitudes and circumstance representative to a ward level. As a result, we have a strong empirical base from which to analyse many social and economic aspects of the province. To date we have produced compelling maps of densities, race, and mobility patterns for different population groups.

How much is this a specific theme, or is it addressed broadly across other research areas?

The GCR is characterised by fundamental social, spatial, and economic inequality and, as a result, research into poverty and inequality is implicit (and usually explicit) in every project. Without grappling with this, our work would have little meaning.

What role do you think data visualization and mapping can play generally, and in the global South specifically?

Many cities of the South do not have a strong empirical base from which to present arguments based in research and data. It is therefore important to build research capacity, to produce an evidence base from which to develop policy. Mapping and data visualisations are also very useful tools for civic participation in policy development, as they make data accessible and provide a common ground for policy debate and discussion. Placing the map in the hands of the public empowers them with the same perspective as decision makers. Close.

The urban school and holistic education: The Westbury Youth Centre model in Johannesburg

Johannesburg, 26 February 2015 — Westbury is an urban neighbourhood in Johannesburg which has suffered from decades of marginalization. Forced to look inward for solutions, it has displayed enormous ingenuity and resourcefulness, forming an innovative and holistic youth center and secondary school 'co-curricular' support model. But the City's spatial transformation projects should assist in bringing about change within disenfranchised communities. See more.

The urban school and holistic education: The Westbury Youth Centre model in Johannesburg

Tariq Toffa, Johannesburg Community Manager

As one of many communities in Johannesburg racially marginalized and segregated under the apartheid system, Westbury suffers from high levels of unemployment, substance abuse, and other widespread social and economic problems, despite being just 6km in proximity to the Johannesburg CBD and to more affluent, integrated suburbs (fig. 1). With the community forced to look inward for solutions, the Westbury Youth Centre (WYC) has organically evolved to offer a holistic space and approach to guide and empower local youth.

Established as an extension of Westbury Secondary School, WYC has been operating for sixteen years, sharing space on the school grounds and running 'co-curricular' activities aimed initially at learners enrolled at the school, but growing to also serve and become an extension of the community. With a focus on education and substance abuse initiatives, WYC offers career guidance, bursary application advice, and internships to learners who do not possess the grades or financial means to enroll for tertiary education.

WYC also provides a base for several NGOs, facilitating a wide range of services, including an alcohol and substance abuse program (SANCA), Family Life Centre (FAMSA), and a restorative justice and counselling program (between victims and criminals) run by Khulisa. Other facilities provided include a radio station (WYC Radio), which publishes local radio stories and audio works made by students at WYC, currently supported and trained by two Finnish volunteers. There are also digital curiosity and photography classes, drama classes, a library, soup kitchen (fig. 2), computer room, coffee shop, and an information centre. Recently a community food garden was also established, supported by Chef Kelvin Joel's socially conscious and innovative JHB Culinary and Pastry School in the Maboneng precinct.

The holistic approach entailed within the co-curricular support model between the school and youth centre has proved to not only increase the pass rate of the high school from 50 percent up to 92 percent, but has also increased the quality of passes with an increase from 15 percent to 50 percent of learners qualifying for diploma studies.

Though funding remains a struggle, from the smallest to the larger WYC has a wide range of sponsors (Phillips SA, KONE Centennial Foundation and KONE South Africa, The Finnish Children and Youth Foundation — who are also in the process of exploring the setting up of similar school-youth centre models in Mexico and India — Investec Bank, and ABC Retailers). But WYC is also, essentially, a community effort, with school committees, parents, teachers, and volunteers all playing a part. "We need lots of legs to keep us up," says Westbury Secondary School's Vice-Principal of the project.

Westbury is a community where the entrenched and divisive spatial, social, and economic engineering of apartheid appears to remain almost intact. The resilience, tenacity, and resourcefulness of WYC in the face of an unjust history and trying circumstances, however, is remarkable. Yet Westbury is not an island. Johannesburg is currently undergoing dramatic spatial transformations, such as the Gautrain rapid-rail, Rea Vaya BRT, and other supporting projects. An article published in 2013 asked how these new, ambitious transportation infrastructures could not only improve connectivity and efficiency at the city scale, but could also improve the lives of disenfranchised communities in their own neighbourhoods. This question is growing increasingly urgent, and in the case of Westbury, now with its own BRT route, of direct consequence (fig. 3). Big budgets and short timeframes — the typical BRT model — can only go so far. Where these top-down structures 'touch the ground' to effect real transformation in communities, the slower process of ground-up participation, empowerment, and relevance still remains as vital — yet perhaps as neglected — as ever. Close.